Manama, – The United States Fifth Naval Fleet, based in Bahrain, said today that they are providing “assistance” to oil tankers who have been “attacked” in the Gulf of Oman, at a time of tension in the area by a similar event last month.
“We have been informed of an attack on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman, and the US Naval Forces in the region received two separate distress calls,” commander Josh Frey, spokesman for the 5th Navy Fleet, said in a statement. is responsible for looking after US interests in the waters of the region.
According to the note, the first call was “at 06.12 local time, while the second was at 07.00 local time”, and notes that “the United States Navy ships are in the area and providing assistance”, without giving identify the flags of the affected tankers.
In this regard, Japanese official sources in Tokyo said that two freighters carrying the flag of that country were attacked today near the Strait of Hormuz for reasons still unknown.
The Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Hiroshige Seko, reported the attack and said that the Japanese authorities are gathering information on the subject, but did not specify who could be behind this attack and the type of cargo that the two ships were carrying Japanese
Previously, the Department of maritime trade of the United Kingdom, which depends on the Royal Navy, reported on its website an “incident” in the Gulf of Oman, near the Iranian coast, without giving further details.
It is a new “incident” after the “sabotage operations” against four oil workers, two of them Saudi, near the same area last month.
That event caused a spike in tension in the Persian Gulf after Saudi Arabia and the United States accused Iran of being behind that “sabotage”, an extreme that Tehran denies.
In addition, the US has decided to increase its military deployment in the Middle East after this rebound with Iran because of the economic sanctions of Washington and the designation of the Iranian Revolution Guardians as a terrorist group.
Abe is in Iran with the aim of achieving a relaxation between Tehran and Washington and yesterday, Iranian President Hasan Rohani, guaranteed today that his country is not going to start a war with the United States (EFE).
